Let’s Talk About Women Rabbis

May 22nd, 2012

1 Sivan 5772

I asked two of the women being ordained by The Rabbinical School of The Jewish Theological Seminary this year to reflect on their hopes and aspirations for—and anxieties about—their new careers in the rabbinate, and on how all of their goals and emotions are affected, in their view, by being women in a field still dominated by men. The reply immediately below is from Rabbi Abbi Sharofsky (RS ’12), who will be serving this coming year as chaplain resident at the VA New York Harbor Health System and completing a CPE residency.

Arnie Eisen

Dear Chancellor Eisen,

You asked if the role of a newly ordained rabbi entering the field is different for a woman than it is for a man. I wish that I could say no. I wish I could be viewed simply as “rabbi” and not as a “woman rabbi,” as if putting my gender in front of my title explains everything about who I am and the Torah I teach. I wish I didn’t have to prepare the answers to questions about managing my family and my job or worry that a specific piece of jewelry I may wear will cause people to think I’m not serious about my work. But do I wish to be the same kind of rabbi as my male colleagues? The answer to that is also no, because I don’t want to be the same rabbi or assume the same role as anyone other than myself.

Every rabbi is different, and not just in terms of gender. Two men vying for the same post as rabbi are going to bring very different life experiences, abilities, and understanding of Torah to the interview. We should not expect the role of the rabbi to be the same for men and women, because the role of the rabbi is unique to every rabbi. The process of finding jobs is truly a shidduch: a match made between a rabbi and a community that are meant to be together. If the rabbi is the right fit for the community, the rabbi’s age, gender, sexuality, family status, and so on won’t matter. The community—whether it is a congregation, school, hospital, or organization—will value that rabbi for who he or she is, not the role that the rabbi is expected to fill according to some long-established paradigm of what a rabbi should be.

I wish I could say that every rabbi is treated equally, respected, and valued for all that he or she brings to the field. However, women are still at a disadvantage at this point in time. Due to the relatively short history of women being ordained as rabbis in the Conservative Movement, and the limited access that women have had to some of the top jobs in our communities, the role of women in the rabbinate is unlike the role of men. It is different because we still need to wage internal battles over whether or not we officiate at conversions and other legal situations. It is different because we know that even though our communities may accept us, love us, and give us nothing but the deepest respect, we are not even counted in a minyan if we venture into more religious communities, let alone given rabbinic authority. The role of women in the rabbinate is shaped by these external forces. I wish that would change.

Abbi Sharofsky

Dear Rabbi Sharofsky,

Thanks for your candid reply to my question. Clearly, we have a long way to go when it comes to acceptance of women rabbis in the Conservative Movement (and beyond) and appreciation of the distinctive skill set that women bring to the rabbinate. I, myself, believe that gender matters enormously when it comes to that skill set. Without “essentializing” on gender grounds—that is, assuming that “all men” share attributes A,B, and C, and “all women” share attributes X, Y and Z—I’d say from observation that women rabbis as a group do bring some different experiences, sensibilities, and concerns to their rabbinates. This is as it should be. One question is how our communities can best take advantage of the opportunities that female leadership brings.

My colleague at JTS, Assistant Professor Emerita of Jewish Literature Anne Lapidus Lerner, points out one such opportunity in “The Impact of Feminism on Conservative Synagogues,” the essay she wrote for the 2008 anthology by Elyse Goldstein and Anita Diamant, New Jewish Feminism: Probing the Past, Forging the Future: “The importance of women clergy as accessible role models for women and girls in congregations cannot be overestimated.”

Steven M. Cohen and I discovered in the course of our research for our book, The Jew Within: Self, Family, and Community in America, that role models make a tremendous difference to the choice for (or against) substantive Jewish commitment. I became chancellor of JTS in part because several of the most important influences on my own Jewish formation were male Conservative rabbis who taught and mentored me as a teenager. Several of the most important influences on my thinking about rabbis, synagogues, and Torah have been female rabbis and scholars whom I have known and been privileged to call friends as an adult. These men and women did not speak, teach, and act primarily as men or as women—I am not sure what that could mean—but neither was their gender incidental to who they were and the influence they exerted.

I don’t see how it can be otherwise, and would not want it to be. Judaism goes as deep as deep can be. Torah is lived heart, soul, and mind and speaks to heart, soul, and mind. God is conceived, encountered, and served with all that we are: sons or daughters; mothers or fathers; male or female friends to other men or women; husbands or wives; and, yes, beneficiaries of gender bias in the workplace or victims of that bias; objects, on the bimah, of differing transferences by congregants; teachers or counselors or leaders to whom people react differently because of gender, among other things.

An essay that has much influenced me, Max Weber’s “Scholarship as a Vocation,” recommends that we think about any vocation from the outside in; that is, that we start with what he called the “externals” of how one makes a living and advances in each given profession, and only afterward take up issues of meaning. I appreciate your answering my question about the externals that women rabbis face, Abbi, and appreciate, too, your wish that those particular externals were no longer significant enough for discussion. May the rewards you experience make up for the obstacles on the path.

Arnie Eisen

The following reply is from Rabbi Annie Lewis (RS ’12), who will serve as the new assistant rabbi of the Germantown Jewish Centre in Philadelphia.

Dear Chancellor Eisen,

Thank you for your thoughts on the unique perspectives that women bring to the rabbinate. I am glad to be part of this conversation with you and Abbi. When I encounter sacred texts authored by men through the lens of my experience as a woman, I come with a willingness to question and a thirst to imagine all the stories that might spring out from the silence. My ear is attuned to the voices on the margins, to the truths buried beneath the surface, and to the power of holy words to injure and to heal. In this way, my gender identity fuels and enlivens the way I study and transmit Torah.

On the cusp of ordination, I felt immense gratitude for a sense of connection to a community of women that spans time and space. At last week’s Tekes Hasmakhah, I wore a strand of pearls that belonged to my grandmother Ann, for whom I am named. She was an active member of her synagogue in the tiny town of Hamilton, Ohio. She cared passionately about Jewish continuity and the flourishing of her congregation. She died in 1964 and never knew a woman rabbi in her lifetime, but I have no doubt she would be pleased with the way things have changed. As I walked across the stage, I thought of the women of Ezrat Nashim who raised their voices at the Rabbinical Assembly Convention in 1972, advocating for full and equal participation for women in ritual life and leadership in the Conservative Movement. When I received my tallit, I remembered how Rabbi Karen Reiss Medwed invited me to a special oneg at Camp Ramah in the Poconos for girls and women who wore kippot, tallitot, and/or tefillin the summer after I became a bat mitzvah, and I carried the stories of the women who have come before me and who carved out the space for my colleagues and me to become teachers of Torah.

I am grateful for the courage of the women and men who spoke out for the inclusion of women in rabbinic leadership, who wrestled with the tradition and found openings for change. I feel a tremendous sense of responsibility to carry on their legacy, to continue to push for more just and egalitarian institutions in my rabbinate, both in terms of ritual life and in terms of the “externals” of how clergy make a living and the ways in which we are able to sustain ourselves and our families. As a woman rabbi, blessed to be a Jew in America in 2012, I feel called to continue to work for a Movement that is fully inclusive of Jews of different sexual orientations and gender identities.

Stepping into the title “Rabbi,” I pray that the women of our class, with our different voices and visions, will continue to weave a tapestry of deep and supportive relationships; that we will speak our truths with confidence; that we will dream big.

Bivracha,

Annie Lewis

Dear Rabbi Lewis,

Amen!

What you are saying flows, in my mind, from Torah’s command to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind―all rather than a single part―which means that all of all of us is needed. Last week’s ordination and investiture ceremonies were, as always, very moving to me―in part because the new rabbis and cantors are bringing so much idealism to the task, and so much experience: law, business, childbearing, summer camp, coming out, Hillel work, studying Talmud, education and synagogue internships, service in the IDF, being an insider, being an outsider, more Talmud. The combination bodes well for the future of Judaism, and particularly for Conservative Judaism.

I trust that both you and Abbi Sharofsky are ready for the hard labor that awaits all women and men who want to serve Torah and the Jewish community. I hope we can meet a decade from now and look back contentedly on what has been accomplished.

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6 Comments

“Stepping into the title “Rabbi,” I pray that the women of our class, with our different voices and visions, will continue to weave a tapestry of deep and supportive relationships; that we will speak our truths with confidence; that we will dream big.” Rabbi Annie Lewis
I am about to obtain ordination/ smicha from RSI, under the auspices of Rabbi Jonathan Ginsburg (RS ’82) and Rabbi Roger Ross. I too will be “stepping into the title, “Rabbi” on June 21,2012. My voice is being directed towards teaching and guiding those with the MPowering of women- 1)mensch, 2) morals, and 3) mission. I hope to weave my thoughts and work along with my sister Rabbis as together, we struggle to change the landscape of acceptance of women Rabbis. As camp Rabbi, at Surprise Lake Camp, located in Cold Spring, NY, I am entering my 13th summer. This summer again, we will be offering many of our young women teen campers, the opportunity to become bnai mitzvahs. I am wishing and hoping that these young women will carry with them the love and passion of Judaism and all the best that Judaism has to offer as they become bnai mitzvahs. I am there to ignite and inspire. They are there to carry the blazing torch of Judaism forward. Maybe, a few of these female teen campers will consider becoming women Rabbis themselves. L’chayim to all of my fellow women Rabbis for the work that they do. Erev Rav Claire

Thank you for continuing this conversation. I too wish it was behind us, but am well aware it needs to continue. What is wonderful is the range of role models rabbis, both male and female, provide for our community, the continuing conversation about rabbinic roles, and the changes wrought in the rabbinate through these. Yes, there is a lot of work left to do, but when I look back on where we started and how far we’ve come I am proud of our accomplishments.

Only an observation: There was apparently a (woman) professor at JTS (directing a feminist research center) who after 40 years of teaching, research, publication and service, still held the title of Assistant Professor and upon retirement was given the honorary title Assistant Professor Emerita. I’m sure that there is a logical explanation. but it seems like an outlier in the academy.

I would like to add my twopennyworth from the UK – not as a Rabbi but as a Chazan.

We came to our sacred calling as klei kodesh to carry the soul of our people through liturgy and music – we are also teachers and pastoral carers, nurturers of neshama. Our training has been equally as long and intense as that of our Rabbinical sisters and brothers.

Often we are not taken seriously as women in a perceived male role. More important, we have an added challenge in being accepted fully by our rabbinical counterparts as equal partners in our holy work.

The role and style of both Rabbi and Chazan are changing in today’s taxing world and we have to find new norms. We women are able to add a nuance and quality to our work that is different from those of our male counterparts and the Jewish world is richer for it.

It is only through working together, Rabbis and Chazanim/Chazaniyot, male and female, listening to each other and learning together as equals, that we will be able to serve our people best.

I was very moved both emotionally and objectively at reading these letters from two
rabbis, who were women.
At Ohavi Zedek a conservative synagogue in Burlington, Vermont we have enjoyed the
benefit of a woman-rabbi-cantor,who with warmth,life experiences, song and scholarship has renewed the faith and experiences of many in our congregation .

Many thanks for drawing attention to women rabbis in the Conservative movement in the United States.

As you may know the experience of women rabbis outside of the U.S. is different. Many Masorti members are ambivalent and some are even hostile to the idea of female rabbis; surprisingly, opposition does not break down according to age or gender. It is important to point out there are also those who would welcome a female rabbi but pulpit positions are limited. Despite the opposition, there are capable, bright and knowledgeable women who are interested in serving as rabbis. Your observation about the importance of role modelling in the formation of substantive Jewish commitment draws attention to need for all kinds of people to serve in the rabbinate. Torah has many facets, from the externals like age, gender and experience to the deeper internals about what aspects of the rabbinate are most meaningful for the individual. A variety of role models help to develop knowledgable, compassionate and engaged Jews.

I welcome your blog post as a means to start a conversation about engaging these would be future female rabbis so that they can take up pulpit position—alongside their male peers–when they open up in the future.

Thanks again for opening up a very important conversation about the role of our present and future rabbis.